CO-OP ADMISSIONS BILL HEARING

A handful of shareholders and representatives of the brokerage community who spoke focused on deadlines and transparent purchase requirements in the bill, Intro 188.  Opposing the legislation were real estate lawyers and co-op boards, which denounced its provisions aimed at unlawful discrimination against applicants and at speeding up board responses.

Among those in favor of the bill were the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY); Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of Corcoran Group Real Estate; and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty.

Said Liebman, reading from a prepared statement: "The provisions of Intro 188 requiring co-op boards to provide a clearly defined list of purchase requirements and a timeline for board response to an applicant's submitted purchase package are fair, reasonable and highly worthwhile. . . They will save time and stress by bringing certainty, transparency and timeliness to all co-op sales and move the process forward at a pace that is reasonable."

Cry Havoc

Opponents savaged the bill, using the words "chaos," "havoc" and "onerous."  They said that it benefited mainly the broker community and would cause a vast number of board vacancies.

Real estate lawyer Stuart Saft, chairman of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, contended that the bill is intended "to solve a problem that does not exist."  He continued:

"What this bill does do is assume that the boards and owners, who elect the boards, are somehow involved in a scheme to discriminate. . .  [T]he City Council is going to create more paperwork and more of an opportunity for lawyers to sue co-ops for missing deadlines and failing to act the right way. . . ."

The financial penalties were particularly irksome to the bill's opponents.  They cited court decisions approximately eight years ago in which the president of a board found guilty of racial discrimination was fined $250,000, other members were fined $25,000 each and they had to pay the fines personally.

At the outset, Councilman Lewis A. Fidler (D, 46th District) acknowledged that the bill he has sponsored "is not perfect" and that certain unspecified technical issues had to be resolved.  At the same time, he insisted, to the vocal approbation of many attending the proceedings, that boards frequently reject applicants without owning up to their unlawful reasons.

"I know it happens," he declared, saying he was aware of buildings that will admit only members of their nationality and those who will reject the same nationality.

When Committee Chair Erik Mark Dilan (D, 37th District) pressed Liebman and Peters whether they categorically knew of any cases of disrimination, they conceded that they could not "definitely" report any.

Yet another witness, Barbara Ford, representing the New York State Association of Realtors, detailed what she described as four examples of discrimination against buyers she had represented in the outer boroughs and on Long Island.  "It happens all the time," she related. 

One example was of a board that explicitly wanted to reject a prospective buyer because of her race.  Told that she would resign as the building's property manager if they took that unlawful action, the board relented.

That, said Fidler, was the "best point" of the day.

Catch 22

He made the statement in the face of criticism that buyers who face discrimination already have city, state and federal agencies to which they can complain and find redress.  If so, he asked, why does the city's Commission on Human Rights have only 22 such complaints on file?

"Twenty-two! That's a sin," remarked John Doyle, senior vice president of REBNY.

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